1. Paper: GCSE Japanese Listening Foundation Tier (1JA0/1F), 2023; total 50 marks with questions in English, based on audio comprehension tasks from real-life and cultural contexts

2. Section topics include: food preferences, making friends in Japanese, extracurricular activities (e.g. hiking, acting, swimming), environmental habits of family members, weather and seasons, dream job motivations, new school preparation

3. Additional listening themes: caring for others (leading to career ambition), travel documentary about Yakushima (trees, scenery, wildlife), social media habits, family business roles, school learning routines, Mt Fuji climb experience, and weekend music concert impressions

4. Common question formats: multiple choice, sentence gap-fill, box matching, and open-answer responses using detail inference and topic-based vocabulary

5. Skills assessed: listening for gist and detail, identifying preferences and activities, interpreting sequence of events, understanding tone and cultural references, inferring speaker intentions and relationships

6. Cultural/lifestyle coverage: traditional and modern Japanese experiences (e.g. school life, sustainability, digital habits, musical events), encouraging contextual language comprehension through youth-focused themes